sweater #7 and some etsy news

Hey folks!

I just updated my etsy shop, and wanted to let everyone know that all Fancy Lace 2 is ON SALE!




It's a beautiful yarn, but not one that I am going to continue offering; just too much yarn and not enough time! I did briefly consider keeping all of it for myself...but thought better of it in the end. Fancy Lace 2 is a blend of 80% alpaca and 20% silk in a soft lustrous 2 ply lace weight yarn. Each skein contains about 970 yards, and is on sale for $30 down from $36.

Ok, I kinda feel like a pushy car salesman, so on to other things!

Here is sweater # 7. I have wanted to knit this pattern for years now, and finally cast on the other day. I had this lovely (yet very mysterious) wool/mohair blend in my stash that just screamed to be knit into this pretty pattern. The yarn is from a local mill, and didn't even come with tags...so I just knit away until I found a gauge that I liked and luckily it worked for the pattern!

You may have never come across this pattern. it's from a little known Rowan book (or at least I think so) and is creatively named "Bed Jacket" by Jennie Atkinson. Anyway, I love it!


Oh yes, and the pattern I knit for sweater # 6 is called Joelle's Favorite Yoke Sweater, for those who were asking.

sweater # 6 in the bag

What a quick and fun knit! I really love this cute little sweater, and it was oh so easy! I followed the pattern exactly too; how often does that happen??









I'm perfectly happy with the sweater, but can't get over how busty I look in it! I thought I had figured out my lot in life, as a small boobed girl (which I am perfectly happy with), but this sweater has got me quite confused. Perhaps I'll wear it with a sports bra; really squeeze them in...who knows?!

In other news, I've been dyeing like a crazy person this week, and here is a look at some of my favourites...

fancy sock in thistle


fancy sock in mushroom

fancy sock in mineral

fancy sock in cinnamon spice

silky DK in slate. I am IN LOVE with this lustrous, soft and squishy yarn!

silky DK in north sea


silky DK in blot


and this pretty little thing is my mom's knitting. She is a big fan of robin's egg, and decided to knit a plain and simple stocking stitch rectangle in fancy lace. I think it's knitting up beautifully!!

Disaster has struck...or close to it

Well, I think it happened because I was so confident in my last post; my granny square vest-thing looks ridiculous. So sad.



I have recovered from the initial shock of putting it on and seeing how bad it looked. Now I'm just a bit bummed that I have to sew all my little hexagons together into a non-garment shape. They will now become pillow cases. I never really considered how bulky the yarn was, and how difficult it is to piece hexagons together into a flattering shape. It was like doing a 3-D body shaped jigsaw puzzle! And just thinking about all the ends I would have to weave in was making me feel a bit sick. I'm sure that It's against the rules, but I think I'm going to count this as one of my 12 sweaters for this year. It was briefly in a sweater shape after all!

On a happier note, my woodland yoke sweater is knitting up really fast! I'm finished the body and just have the little sleeves and yoke to knit. I'm really excited to see it finished, and am already planning sweater #7...



...It's a new base; 50/50 merino and silk in a very squishy DK weight yarn! I have a design in mind for this yarn, and dyed up 6 skeins of it yesterday. The colour I chose (after MUCH deliberation) is "mineral". And here is a look at another favourite colour of mine in the same lovely base, "flourite"...

a little sweater news

Somehow I have managed to stick with my Intswemodo 2010 sweater knitting goals; I'm almost caught up, and feeling pretty confident!

Here's a look at sweater #6...





...I mentioned last time that the pattern is Joelle's Favorite Yoke Sweater (so simple and pretty!) And I'm using more Viola yarn; Merino Fingering in the colour "woodland". I am loving knitting this yarn, it's so soft, squishy, and down right dreamy!

I've been toying with the idea of a knit dress for quite a while now, and have a few design ideas bouncing around in my head. This yarn is a strong contender...the most difficult decision will be which colour to pick!



and here is my latest bit of spinning. It's Viola superwash merino in a colour I called "confections". I think It will become a little baby sweater...February Baby perhaps??

oh, and one more thing before I go. Does anyone else out there LOVE Joanna Newsom?? I've know about her awesomeness for a long time now, but lately can't listen to anything else. Just curious.

I ran a 1/2 marathon!

I meant to mention that this was happening in my last post, but totally forgot; I just ran a 1/2 marathon!

This past Sunday I was up out of bed at 6, and lined up on the starting line (or rather, one of thousands crammed into "start corrals") by 9. And by 11-ish the whole thing was done - for me anyway.

It was the Ottawa Marathon weekend, and it was so much fun!! Up until this point I'd only visited Ottawa for swim meets, I had almost believed that Ottawa was just one big pool (joking!). But we ran through so much of the city that I feel like I've made up for lost time.

I ran the race in 1:59:39, which just barely squeeks me into my under 2 hour goal. But I'm pretty happy with it, and next time around hope I can chop off a few minutes.

So here I am looking a bit crazy with my little sister.



And here are some much prettier pictures:







I can't be happier with the way this sweater came out! Now I just have to wait for the weather to cool off to be able to wear it.

I just couldn't get gauge with the yarn I planned on using for my next sweater, so it will be quickly knit into a simple little t shirt; Joelle's favorite yoke sweater
For the mysterious test knit sweater I'm going to use the same yarn as the designer, and it is coming all the way from Europe! Yay, hooray, yippee!

Paper Dolls amost finished!

Yippee! This time around, my paper dolls sweater has knit up quite easily. At the moment, I have only to graft the armpits and weave in just a few more ends...and block of course, but I never count that part.

I knew I had to take action to counter the lumpy yoke issue from last time. After knitting the body I quickly decreased from the size 8 to size 7. I knit the chart up to the doll's shoulders (or thereabouts) and then decreases in between their heads. By the time i was at the pattern's first decrease round I was already well below the given stitch count. And hooray! It fits me perfectly! I really think that the yoke needs to fit quite snug in order for it to look its best. The dolls all sit flat and smooth, and there is not a pucker in sight!

I'm quite amazed with how quickly I knit this sweater (2 weeks I think), and it has given me hope that I may still be able to knit 12 sweaters this year...so long as most don't have sleeves....





...I am SO excited about the colours I chose! I found that I loved them more and more as I knit with them, and I really like seeing the speckle-y yarn knit into stocking stitch. All the wacky colour changes really stand out, which I love!

The next sweater on my list is a test knit for a friend on Ravelry. Its an adorable little t shirt with puff sleeves and thin stripes...so cute!
I'm planning to knit it in my Merino Fingering, a soft and squishy superwash merino fingering weight yarn. I THINK I've narrowed down the colours, but can't seem to settle on even the most simple decisions recently...we'll see. At the moment, the selections are a more-gray-than-usual robin's egg and a new brownish-green colour called Woodland.



I haven't been spinning at all, I've only had time to feel guilty about not spinning! The mohair/wool I talked about in my last post is lovely, but there is just to darn much of it. I'm losing interest! Of course, this spinning slump has NOT prevented me from doing some fiber shopping! The latest purchases are from an Etsy seller called Cloudlover69. Here is her lovely shop. I scooped some superwash merino in Calico






and alpaca/merino/silk in illustrus. So pretty!



That's all for now!

a lot of stuff all at once.

I am SUPER excited to let you all know that I finally got my act together this week and listed my first items for sale on Etsy, fun!

After the Frolic (which was a great success btw) it took me a few days to get back into the swing of things- its not easy to recover from such a fiber frenzy - but when I did, Etsy was my first priority! I was spurred on by the encouragement from out-of-towers who can't make it to the shop, so hope you can find something you like...if not you can always message me to ask...I may have your dream colour squirreled away somewhere. I do have a nasty habit of hiding things, always thinking, "I'll keep this and knit something fantastic" but forgetting all about it moments later. Currently there is a smattering of spinning fiber, lace and sock yarns up, but keep checking in for more!

I know that I've already mentioned my Forecast in Dream in Colour Classy in the Black Parade colourway...and its finished! I knit the entire sweater in exactly 2 weeks, it was just that much fun!







OK, almost finished...it still needs buttons. This sweater was the perfect thing to knit after the sleeve agony of my featherweight! There was no point in me modelling it for these pics, it looks a bit silly when it's not buttoned up...as you might be able to guess from the ridiculous picture above!

I made just a few mods:

- knit to gauge of 18 st over 4" instead of 16 st over 4". I just can't handle loose saggy sweaters, it looked like some people's were a little see through!
-lengthened the body a good 3-4 inches before the ribbing
-knit 3 stitch instead of 5 stitch bobbles (as most people have it seems). The 5 stitch bobble was so huge that it was all you could see in the swatch!
-knit the buttonband in seed stitch to match the collar instead of that silly horizontal rib.

This sweater fits me PERFECTLY and I just can't wait to wear it, but deciding on buttons is a bit tricky...I'm leaning toward some very plain metal buttons at the moment. What do you think folks?
Oh yes, and I have to say that I love Classy; this was my first and certainly not my last time knitting with this lovely yarn.

My Forecast success has spurred me on ( haven't yet given up on 12 sweaters is 2010...though I am still considerabley behind...) and the next sweater up is Paper Dolls take 2. When the lumpy yoke disaster struck with version one I vowed I'd give it another shot, so I am. This time I'm knitting it from my own yarn, Viola Sock. I'm using Cinnamon Spice as the main colour with Nut Brown and Robin's Egg as the 2 accent colours. I flew through the ribbing and I'm into the body of the sweater...really I just want to get to the real action at the yoke!





I've been spinning just a bit lately. At the Frolic I saw vendors that I'd purchased fiber from last year (and haven't done anything with...) so I decided to start spinning one of last year's buys; Wellington Fibers wool and mohair blend. So far its spinning up great, there is quite a lot more colour variation that I expected...though I may not have captured it very well in this pic...



I just love how bright and sunny this colour is!

This year at the Frolic I managed to stay away from fiber, but yarn was a different story! I am now the proud owner of 5 skeins of Peace Fleece in the colourway Ancient Fern



A cone of Habu 100% silk tweedy lace stuff (amazing right?!)




and the most beautiful Japanese book on fair isle that I have ever seen!



This may not be new to everyone out there, but the charts are all 3-D...it so easy!


I want to knit this dress if its the last thing I do!



Well thats all for now. Sorry this post has been all over the place...once again, I really need to blog more!